What to say to British Rowing?

[MPx]

I've been pretty p**d off with British Rowing and their approach to BRIC this year. Rather than just nefarious moaning, I thought it best to write to them and ask for better. I'll be saying something along the following lines. If you can be bothered to wade through the waffle I'd be grateful for any thoughts if you think I'm way off the mark or have missed some crucial points.

I had another email from British Rowing today. The third since the Festival ended. It included very little new information – indeed still suggesting I look out how I did by linking through to the generic Festival page. That page has a “leaderboard” link, and the leaderboard still shows exactly what it did on Sunday with all participants lumped into a bucket. Of course its possible to filter on sex/age/weight/etc and look at a smaller pool, but its not exactly a “results” page with Gold, Silver, Bronze shown for each category recognised, is it?

The new information this time was largely contained in this paragraph:
“We had over 2300 people register for the Festival LEAGUE during the event, which is the biggest uptake in 2 years for an online challenge. We also welcomed 19 different countries taking part and over 1,415,394 metres were rowed. The oldest competitor was 94 years old.”

I can understand the desire for an upbeat message, but this comes across to me as positive spin on a delusional scale. I watched the 4 (yes just 4) 2k virtual races on Saturday and there were typically 3 to 5 participants in each “race” mostly singletons in their category with just a few pairs so virtually no actual racing – less than 20 people total. The four 500 races in the afternoon were equally poorly populated – and just 2 women’s “races” all day.

Looking at the league, the situation is little better. I can see that there was a reasonably significant uptake amongst the schools. But for the adult open and masters categories participation was very disappointing. Total entries across all ages/sex/weight categories in the 4 events were 500m 112; 2k 70; 1min 127; 4min 58 – and that includes the 108 eligible entries from the school kids. If you consider that many of us entered more than one event, the actual number of individual entrants was again woefully low – I’d estimate maybe 150, you obviously have the true figures. Spinning this as the biggest uptake in 2 years is absurd.

I’m fervently hoping that, despite the up beat public facing spin, you are in fact conducting an urgent internal review of what can have gone so horribly wrong. I’ve been attending the equivalent of BRIC for more than 20 years. As a C2 run BIRC there were full days scheduled at the Birmingham arena, Nottingham University and latterly the Velodrome filling two banks of 40 ergs with back to back racing. Since British Rowing have taken over, the spin of ever greater success has been kept, but the reality of what I’ve seen at the events has not.

Sadly I do not have answers … but then its not my job, its yours. Suggestions I do have would include looking at:

How to get the top UK rowers to take part again? There’s always a draw when the big names are there – Redgrave, Pinscent, Cracknell etc were often in attendance in my early years of watching. Even Wiggins’ unfortunate attempt attracted a fair bit of hype. More recently watching the likes of Sbihi and Neill duking it out was a fantastic spectacle with many from GB rowing in attendance as recently as 2018. One of the motivational joys of using the C2 erg is the ease of seeing how you stack up against the elite. It really does make you appreciate how special those guys are.

What about the cost of taking part? In terms of value for money this years subs came as a bit of a surprise, especially when there’s lots of BR hype around becoming more “inclusive”. £39 to enter the 2k and £55 if you want to make the most of your day and include another 90 seconds racing in addition to the 7 minutes enjoyed in the morning. For most there will also need to be a least one night’s accommodation (at London rates) and of course subsistence for the time away from home and any necessary travel costs. At this level its not a casual event to do on a whim and see how you compare – this would have to be a planned for outing costing in excess of £250 – a significant amount for the majority of households. Maybe consider moving it away from London and cut entry fees to the absolute minimum. Is there no venue in BR’s gift that could host the event at lower cost?

Hopefully you will have many more ideas of how to get the sport back on track. Currently there’s no fewer of us using the Erg as a training tool – C2 still sell a lot of ergs. You need to find a way to attract us back to the showpiece events. At current levels of participation you might reasonably conclude its no longer worth holding such events. In my view that will be the first step on the road to ending the sport.

[JaapvanE]

“We had over 2300 people register for the Festival LEAGUE during the event, which is the biggest uptake in 2 years for an online challenge. We also welcomed 19 different countries taking part and over 1,415,394 metres were rowed. The oldest competitor was 94 years old.”

Interesting. I participated in our (monthly?) "Row with the devs" session with EXR, which now included 5 prizes when people registered via this same League app last weekend (see https://exrgame.com/blog/update-1.15). I rowed around 13K, but most people dropped off around 6 to 8K. I became second after one of the EXR ambassedors (typically former competitive rowers), but I couldn't be bothered to register (it is no race for me, just fun). But this is a way to cranck up the registrations and meters.

[Dangerscouse]

I like the letter Mike, and it strikes the right tone. I can not fathom why it was so woefully attended, even as a virtual event, especially as there are alternative erg competitions, e.g., Row Series, Erg Wars, etc, that still seem to be very popular. Admittedly, it's tough to assess quite how popular it is, but they appear to be better than this BR fiasco.

Given how popular the last in person BRIC in 2019 was, I can't believe that the popularity has faded, so it must be an administration issue, and the entry fee was mentioned a lot by people who I know.

[winniewinser]

Quite a few ergs up for sale ATM on various outlets.....I wonder if the lockdown boost has waned somewhat and only the hardy remain.

Shamefully I am one of those that now has no interest in competing ...a few reasons why that I won't bore people with. What started in the office gym with a desire to break 20' for 5k just doesn't have the same spark.

[MPx]

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.

Interesting @JaapvanE if they included the EXR registrations in their count for the festival. Its really hard to see from the results how they can account for the over 2300 figure unless its inflated by something tangental to the league and races.

Anyway, I'll send something off in an email and report back if I get any sort of response. Thanks again.

[Tsnor]

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.

Interesting @JaapvanE if they included the EXR registrations in their count for the festival. Its really hard to see from the results how they can account for the over 2300 figure unless its inflated by something tangental to the league and races.

Anyway, I'll send something off in an email and report back if I get any sort of response. Thanks again.

It's late for input, but here it is anyway.

Business letters like this have to be short and chunky.

Build a perfect subject line so if they only read the subject line you still have some impact. Subject line will also give context for what you are going to say.
Say what you want up front. People will not read more than 3 sentences before they decide that they know what you want (which may be very different than what you actually want). Thus you get an off-topic reply that "... included very little new information – indeed still suggesting I look out how I did by linking through to the generic Festival page."
Direct the letter to a person you know is involved in the decision making. Explain up front why you are writing them.
Tell them what you want done and offer any help you want to provide. Bulleted lists are good -- eyes flow to bullets like " get the top UK rowers to take part again" and "Optimize entry costs"

Don't assume the reader can combine facts or draw their own conclusion -- that is making them work. You want to make it easy for them. Especially if you have a set of actions that you think will help.

Good luck.

[Two Pudding Kid]

I had put an entry in for the BRIC this year as I was looking forward to a live race. I had to take a chance there wouldnt be a rail strike, (there wasnt that weekend but I didnt know that at the time). In the end I went to London for the overnight and travelled to Central London on Friday evening.

I think that £39 is a lot to pay for a 2k, although I expect it has been at least £25 to £30 for an entry before. Live virtual isnt possible if you dont have an erg of your own or know someone who will let you set up on theirs - I had to go to someone elses house for the Worlds 2022. It is swings and roundabouts on the choices of racing and if I do go anywhere overnight I would have to leave straight after the race due to caring responsibilities. Although I am happy to do virtual I would like to think we might have some live racing in UK.

I get the feeling that pre-covid we didnt have much in the way of virtual racing and maybe in 2019 and before there werent many options, or technology and apps werent available like they are now. During lockdown it was the only option, and maybe we havent really shaken that idea off. Disappointing that there werent more entries but I dont know if the league was advertised to anyone who doesnt have a British Rowing subscription.

It is not just us, seems like the Hamburg ergo racing is finding that virtual is preferred to live and less numbers in some events. After 2 years of virtual the idea was to go back to at least the locals doing live events, but seems that there wasnt enough takers to justify it and it is virtual again this year for all.

PS I agree the rowing festival isnt clear on winners, 2nd, 3rd etc - was expecting a proper leaderboard like you. Might have squeaked a 3rd place in the 500m but nothing to write home about, and now having hip issues going to have to push for the replacement op in 2023 ASAP. Would hopefully be able to make a BRIC 2023 if it was December.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[MPx]

It's late for input, but here it is anyway.

Very sage advice as always @Tsnor. Having already emailed most of my waffle as set out above when you wrote it, much of it was wasted sadly. I do agree with what you say, but equally I think we have a "right" to expect more and better. These sporting bodies employ senior people at very significant salaries these days. To justify that, I'm (no doubt naively) expecting that they can extract a message from what I wrote and at least consider that they may have a problem. Its having no recognition of that (or simply denying it) that will prevent improvement. We'll see. Of course I've not heard back yet, but it has only been 10 days and that includes Christmas.

[MPx]

I had put an entry in for the BRIC this year as I was looking forward to a live race. I had to take a chance there wouldnt be a rail strike, (there wasnt that weekend but I didnt know that at the time). In the end I went to London for the overnight and travelled to Central London on Friday evening.

I think that £39 is a lot to pay for a 2k, although I expect it has been at least £25 to £30 for an entry before. Live virtual isnt possible if you dont have an erg of your own or know someone who will let you set up on theirs - I had to go to someone elses house for the Worlds 2022. It is swings and roundabouts on the choices of racing and if I do go anywhere overnight I would have to leave straight after the race due to caring responsibilities. Although I am happy to do virtual I would like to think we might have some live racing in UK.

Thanks for your contribution Susan. Its a very good point about access to equipment for many being an issue to going virtual - I wish I'd included that. I too went up to Stratford on the Friday despite the cancellation as our Hotel was already booked, meeting of friends arranged and entertainment for Fri and Sat nights in place. Best of luck for 2023.

[Tsnor]

It's late for input, but here it is anyway.

I think we have a "right" to expect more and better. These sporting bodies employ senior people at very significant salaries these days.

Glad you took action. Can't hurt, might help.

[RR]

Sitting around after Christmas, a thought came to mind about BRIC 2022, I decided the check results, out of interest to see what went on.
Disappointed to find it had been cancelled.
I did a few BIRCs(2000-2012) back in the day when there was BIRC, Welsh, Scottish, English, Irish plus various regional competitions where there was a big group of regulars who formed many friendships. The annual jaunt across the pond to the CRASH-Bs was the chance to meet other like-minded souls from all over the world and form bonds and have a few beers after the races.
My competition days are long gone but I still jump on the machine in between my travels.
I’m still LWT too!, weighing in at around 68kg.
Hopefully competitions wont die out completely and who knows I may be tempted to make a return in late 2025 when I move up into the 70-74LWT category.
Erg On
roadrunner

[MPx]

Hopefully competitions wont die out completely and who knows I may be tempted to make a return in late 2025 when I move up into the 70-74LWT category.

Sadly I think a great deal was lost with the demise of the UK forum/blogs back in the mid-teens David, but having said that the competitions were still well supported up to 2018. Age often isn't kind to bodies, but there's a continued rivalry/friendship/support I see through personal contact. Richard S, George B, Lindsay H being an example in 70+. All the best with keeping your interest going and getting back to competition in a couple of years. Will be interestng to see if any from your cohort can take on the new records being set at the moment by Jeremy Martin.

[RR]

Cheers Mike,
If I can get past the “I can’t be arsed stage”, I’ll be fine.
My boy did a year of good stuff in 2021 in the 30 - 39LWT age group, so he’s kept the name up there
All the best
DH

[MPx]

Thought I should update this post to complete the story from my perspective. After two months I'd heard nothing at all from my original email so I forwarded it to Alastair Marks (CEO BR). He apologised and asked James Lee and/or Kenny Baillie to respond to me saying they were in charge of Events and BRIC. Two days later I got this helpful, lengthy, but still worrying, response from Kenny:

Dear Mike,

Thanks for getting in touch and giving us your feedback. The cancellation of the British Indoors last December was disappointing for everyone, especially the competitors who enjoy it so much but we were faced with a very substantial financial loss which would have had a negative impact on the governing body so the decision was made in the best interests of the sport.

I thought you'd like to see some stats from the substitute activity - the Festival of Indoor Rowing...

LEAGUE

Categories
2km, 500m, 1 minute and 4 minute for everyone.
Juniors :2 min (Year 7), 3 min (Year 8), 4 min (Year 9), 5 min (Year 10), 6 min (Year 11) and 2km (Sixth Form).

Overview of sign ups
One time Registrations - 2,442 (In which 2,301 registered and submitted a score when the LEAGUE was open)
Things to note
Adult entries accepted as valid - 359 (12 of which were adaptive)
Junior entries accepted as valid - 1,712 (1 of which was adaptive)
Male entries who submitted a valid score - 1,299
Female entries who submitted a valid score - 771
Non binary who submitted a valid score - 1
Great Britain - 2,008
Other 19 countries - 63The machine numbers used in the event with valid scores were:Concept2 - 2,062WaterRower - 2RP3 - 3Other (low cost machines such as ) - 4This was the biggest number of entries we have had to an online LEAGUE with leaderboards in 2 years.
C2 ErgRace Races

Overview
56 sign ups44 open entries/ 12 female47 Adults (35 HWT/ 12 LWT)9 Juniors9 Races delivered on the day. 2000m and 500m for adults. Timed race for Juniors.
Things to note
The LIVE C2 racing element was only open to sign up for just over a week. So numbers were always going to be quite low. You had to have access to a Concept2 with a PM5 monitor and the ErgRace App making this limited to who could access this part of the festival.We also had partners offering other opportunities on the day of the Festival than just the above.The LEAGUE and online racing was only advertised for two weeks to our collective BR channels. Whereas Virtuals and BRIC would be open for a much longer length of time and would have substantial marketing behind it to achieve higher numbers.

All of this happened in a short space of time after we had to cancel the British Indoors.

We are going to use this data -plus data from other events like the European Championships and World Championships - to inform what we do going forward in terms of virtual and in-person events.

I hope this has helped and that you will again look out for our events in the future.

Best wishes,

Kenny

It was good of them to share the stats with me but I'm still worried that they are seeing this pulling a success from a bad hand rather than a systemic issue that needs to be dealt with. I responded pretty much straight away :

Hi Kenny,

Many thanks for your response and letting me see the stats for the Festival. As I'd seen from the results, the entry numbers were dominated by the school kids. While its great to see such interest from the youngsters as the future of the sport it serves as a stark contrast to the adult numbers which would normally be in the thousands rather than low hundreds.

Since we therefore can all see that there has been a crash in adult entry, the issue is why was that, why was the French Euro's not similarly affected, nor the Worlds in Canada, and what can be done to ensure there's not a repeat at the next competition? The key rationale you set out is the lack of time and publicity surrounding the Festival given the fairly late cancellation of the Arena event. OK, but that doesn't begin to explain why the main event tanked to such an extent that it had to be cancelled.

Since it seems that the threat of facing a significant financial loss was the primary cause of the cancellation then clearly the cost base and its mitigation needs to be addressed, as well as how to make the event more attractive to ergers. Hosting it somewhere less prestigious than the Velodrome perhaps if that is the most significant cost contributor. Also is there any greater sponsorship opportunity?

To make it more attractive to enter, again costs will be a significant factor. Hosting it somewhere not involving London accommodation costs would help. Cutting entry fees would help - you could perhaps maintain entry fees, but offer 50% (or more!) discount for early entry, with a cut off (back to full price) say 6 weeks before the event. This way I'd expect a significant part of the entry to sign up early giving you more confidence in being able to stage the event with decent numbers. Also hosting somewhere more accessible and with parking might be a helpful move. There's more people wedded to their personal transport than there are evangelising the public transport ethos followed by a long cold and potentially wet walk through a park in December.

I'm pleased to read that you will be looking at the Euros/Worlds data and hopefully the French and Canadians will be able to throw more light on the issues by what they did differently. I'll look forward to attending a revitalised in person event somewhere next year with a fully subscribed race programme.

Regards
Mike

I've heard nothing back and don't expect too - they don't work for me! In fact, although I said the Worlds were well populated (and in comparison to BRIC they were), I heard that the total number of athletes was only 1600 - well below the ~3000??? I recall from a few years back. Will be interesting to see if the CrashBs get the numbers on Sunday. If anyone is motivated to ask any further questions you can email these people at BR using the format firstname.surname @ britishrowing.org (no spaces).

[Yankeerunner]

. Will be interesting to see if the CrashBs get the numbers on Sunday.

CRASH-Bs has 517 entrants this year. Way down from the 2000 or so from the glory years. Losing the World Championship designation cut the numbers roughly in half in 2018, and losing two years of in-person racing from Covid undoubtedly has cost it more.

Some of the other events seem to be weathering it better. As mentioned, the Paris event seemed well attended, as did the Alexandria, Virginia event. They are doing something right.

It hurts to see CRASH-Bs decline in numbers. It was the event that started it all and nurtured it through the first few decades. Any successful event today owes a debt of gratitude to CRASH-Bs.

I'll be there on Sunday, giving it my all at 9 AM and cheering on others who do the same in the later races. I still love the sport and hope that it thrives again.